The House Judiciary Committee June 24 passed ARTBA-supported legislation curbing the abuse of class-action lawsuits in federal courts.

H.R. 1927, the “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2015,” requires all parties involved in a class action lawsuit to have suffered the same type of injury. This would prevent individual plaintiffs from artificially growing the size of a class of litigants in an effort to obtain a potentially larger reward from the court.

For example, if the named plaintiff brings a lawsuit claiming that his or her piece of equipment malfunctioned in a certain way, he or she cannot represent a class that includes consumers who did not experience similar problems with the machine. For the transportation construction firms, such frivolous lawsuits can drive up expenses and delay projects.

The legislation now proceeds to the full House of Representatives, though no date has been set for its consideration. Read the letter of support from ARTBA and 28 other trade associations to House Judiciary Committee leadership.